


homie your math skills are swag and your brain is yolo

by bonhomie



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:01:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22582174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonhomie/pseuds/bonhomie
Summary: Ashe needs a tutor.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 6
Kudos: 89





	homie your math skills are swag and your brain is yolo

So Ashe is not a straight A student. That's fine. He's a hard worker, and if a few Bs are sprinkled between the As, well, no one's perfect. You don't need a 4.0 to graduate. It's fine, totally fine.

It's fine, Ashe thinks, until he checks his midterm grades and finds out that things are indeed not fine at all. Maybe it was because he was down with a cold all last week, or maybe it was because he spent a little too much time planning next week's event for Culinary Club, but he is now in danger of failing math. Math! What does an English major like him need to take math for? (A good number of reasons, to be sure, but again, Ashe is not good at math and therefore that number is meaningless to him.)

And so Ashe calls up his friend Annette, who has already taken this course and got an A. Really, he should have taken it with her to get it over with, but he's a coward.

"Hello?"

"Annette! Are you busy?" Ashe may be losing his mind right now, but he's still polite.

"Just studying," she says. "Do you need something?"

"Uh, well," Ashe stutters. "What…What are you studying?" Coward.

"Bio," she replies.

"Oh! Well, speaking of bio!" How the hell was he going to segue into math. "Uh…you probably use a lot of math, huh?" Smooth.

"Are you having trouble in math, Ashe?" Annette cuts to the chase. "You had a midterm last week, right?"

"Oh, Annette!" Ashe practically wails. "I got a 26! A 26! I thought it was a typo! You ever get a score so low you think it's a typo?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ashe. But you have another midterm in a few weeks, right? A chance to boost up your grade!"

"I wish! The professor said the easy part's over! What easy part?! If I can't even get what we're learning now, what hope do I have for the next midterm?" Ashe leans over and opens his snack drawer, tearing open a bag of chips and munching anxiously.

"Have you gone to office hours?" Annette asks.

"Yeah, but they're always so crowded…there's not nearly enough time for me to ask all my questions." Ashe puts his head in his arms. "Can you help me?" his muffled voice whimpers.

"To be honest, Ashe, I don't know if I remember a thing from last semester," Annette laughs sheepishly. Before Ashe can groan, however, she quickly adds, "But I know someone who can tutor you! He's really good!"

Ashe shoots up out of his seat, and he yelps as his bag of chips tips over the edge of the desk. Annette waits, listening to Ashe's yelps as he tries to save his chips and in the process almost drops his phone, too.

"You okay?" Annette asks when she hears him settle down.

"Yeah! So that tutor, how do you know him?" Ashe can't believe he's out of breath. Maybe he should hit the gym with Felix, after all.

"Actually, he tutored me last semester!" Annette says. "That's how I know he's good. I'll give you his number!"

"Oh, that's great! Thank you so much, Annette!" Ashe jumps up again, this time with chip bag in hand.

"No problem!" Annette laughs.

After Annette finally manages to get Ashe to stop thanking her and end the call, she sends Ashe the number, which he immediately texts.

[1:15 pm]  
hey! i'm ashe :) annette gave me your number! are you maybe able to tutor me in math this semester?

Ashe sits with his knees tucked up under his chin, a chip hanging from his mouth as he stares at his phone anxiously. A minute passes, and the ding from his phone makes Ashe yell in both surprise and anticipation.

[1:16 pm]  
hey! thanks for texting me! yea, i can tutor you! $20/hour ok? i'm sylvain, btw

Oh shit, Ashe thinks. He totally forgot he had to pay. He opens the spreadsheet Annette helped him set up to plan his budget. He looks sadly at the cell labeled Snacks. His finger hovers over the backspace key for a good thirty seconds before he finally renames it Tutor. It's for his own good, he tells himself.

[1:20 pm]  
yeah, that's fine! can we meet fridays at 3pm? is the library ok?

[1:22 pm]  
sure, starting this week?

[1:22 pm]  
yes! thanks so much!

[1:23 pm]  
no problem ;)

The winky face is a little weird. Maybe it was a typo. Nevertheless, he lets out a sigh of relief. He can't wait until Friday.

xx

Ashe stands in front of the library, checking his phone repeatedly. Sylvain said to look for a tall redhead. Ashe figures that's a specific enough description.

Sure enough, he sees a tall redhead approach with a black haired man by his side. Ignoring his companion, who honestly looks like someone Ashe wouldn't want to bump into in the middle of the night, Sylvain looks just like he expected. Prim, proper--just how a math tutor would look.

Ashe smiles and waves. "Sylvain!"

To his dismay, Sylvain does not even so much as look in his direction. Instead, he's engrossed in talking to his friend and walks right past Ashe. Ashe pulls up his phone again to see if he just totally hallucinated the tall redhead thing when he feels a tap on his shoulder.

"Ashe?"

Ashe turns around. "S-Sylvain?"

Before him is, indeed, a tall redhead, but other than that, Ashe would not have pinned him as a math nerd at all. Sylvain is handsome, and he smiles like he knows it. His tousled hair and undone top buttons also gives off a certain energy. _Horny_ , an unhelpful voice in Ashe's mind supplies.

"That's me," Sylvain chirps. "Nice to meet you." He holds out his hand.

Ashe slowly takes his hand and shakes it. He doesn't know why, but he's surprised to find that it's clean. "Nice to meet you," he mumbles.

"So, should we head in? I'm assuming you're taking the same class Annette did?" Sylvain opens the door for him, and Ashe blinks before hurrying in.

"Uh, yeah," Ashe says.

"Oh, nice," Sylvain says, and Ashe hates that he sounds genuinely pleased about it.

They find a table, and Ashe pulls out his notebook and textbook. He's just about settled into a state of calm, but then Sylvain takes a seat beside him and puts his arm around the back of Ashe's chair, and Ashe goes rigid.

"So, what are you learning right now?" Sylvain asks, casually leafing through the textbook.

Ashe tries not to notice the way Sylvain's hair brushes against his ear. "Uh…actually...okay, well, this is kind of bad, but could you…" Oh god, time to expose his shame to a guy he just met.

"You want me to teach you from the beginning?" Sylvain says, his amused smile both infuriating and dazzling.

"Uh, I mean, is that okay?" Ashe asks sheepishly.

"Well, I don't know how much I can cover in an hour, but I'm up for it!" Sylvain squeezes Ashe's shoulder. Maybe Ashe's heart gets squeezed too. Whatever.

What Ashe finds rather annoying is that Sylvain turns out to actually be a pretty good teacher. What the hell was with this guy's specs? Why were they so high? Ashe was sure there had to be something wrong with him. No way anyone's that perfect. He definitely had shady vibes.

"Oh!" Sylvain says, breaking Ashe out of his train of thought. "By the way, next Friday's Valentine's Day, so do you mind meeting on Thursday instead? Or we could do two hours the following week."

Oh. Figures that someone like him would have a girlfriend to spend Valentine's Day with. Not like it matters to Ashe, of course.

"Oh, sure! Two hours next time is fine," Ashe says, nodding. He has classes all day on Thursdays. "Are you and your girlfriend doing something special?"

Sylvain laughs. "Girlfriend?"

Ashe blinks. "Um, boyfriend?" He tries to look casual about it.

Sylvain laughs again. "Oh, no, I'm not dating anyone right now. But I'm sure I'll have someone to spend Valentine's with by the time it comes around."

Ashe tilts his head. "Are you gonna confess to the one you like?"

"Sure! Something like that," Sylvain replies cheerily. "Anyway, so. Derivatives, huh?" He runs a finger down the page of the textbook that Ashe totally forgot was the purpose of them being there.

"Ah, right, derivatives," Ashe clears his throat. He tries to concentrate for the remaining half hour of their session, but he can't help wondering what Sylvain meant.

xx

"So? What did you think?" Annette says.

Ashe wipes his forehead, getting flour on it. "He's good," he says, perhaps reluctantly, but he hides his tone by bending to put the next batch of pastries in the oven.

"I'm glad!" Annette claps her hands, then gets a napkin to wipe Ashe's face. "I was a little worried," she admits.

"Worried? Why?" Ashe asks as he washes his hands.

"Well, I wasn't sure if you already knew Sylvain and his reputation…I thought you might be hard on him, you know? Like not giving him a chance to tutor you," Annette says sheepishly, pinching the fabric of her skirt between her hands.

"What's his reputation?" Ashe may feel some satisfaction creeping in his belly at the idea that Sylvain was not so perfect after all, but he isn't going to acknowledge it.

Annette blinks. "Oh, it's no big deal!" she laughs nervously. "Anyway, you met him! He's a nice guy, isn't he?"

"Annette," Ashe warns, "I thought you were waiting to try the danishes when they were done?"

"I…! Well…!" Annette looks away, flustered. "I mean…" She purses her lips. "So Sylvain is a little promiscuous…it's the 21st century! We don't need to judge him on that sort of thing!"

"If he was just a little promiscuous, he wouldn't have a reputation you'd worry about," Ashe points out.

Annette furrows her eyebrows. "Okay, so, maybe he sees a new girl every week…Maybe his exes all call him a jerk…But it's not like you're going to date him! You just need him to tutor you! And he won't act inappropriate! He didn't with me," she says.

"Well, of course he didn't. I think the universe would smite him if he tried," Ashe says matter-of-factly.

Annette can't help the laugh that bubbles out of her. "Well…now that you know…are you gonna find a new tutor after all?"

Ashe pauses. "I mean…he is good at explaining things…And I trust your opinion, so if you recommend him so much, then…"

Annette breaks into a smile. "Great! You're sure to get an A, Ashe!"

"We'll see," Ashe laughs.

xx

The next time Ashe sees Sylvain is not at their next tutoring session, but rather at the campus cafe.

Ashe isn't sure of the etiquette here. They were just acquaintances, so was saying hi appropriate? Should he just pretend he didn't see him? Perhaps he spends too long contemplating this while staring, because Sylvain seems to feel his gaze and turns around.

"Oh! Hey, Ashe!" Sylvain beams. There's a short, fluffy girl standing beside him, and Ashe wonders if she'll be the one Sylvain spends his Valentine's with.

"Hi," Ashe says awkwardly. He's not sure what else to say. The girl beside Sylvain looks shy, and Ashe can't help thinking that he didn't expect Sylvain's type to be so cute.

"Wanna sit with us?" Sylvain asks.

Ashe looks from Sylvain to the girl back to Sylvain. "Oh, no, that's fine, haha! I wouldn't want to intrude."

Sylvain tilts his head. "You sure?" The girl is staring at him, and she isn't saying anything, but Ashe feels nervous anyway. "We don't mind. Right, Bernie?"

The girl next to him startles. "Huh? Oh! Um, yes!" She looks like she's trying to smile, but Ashe thinks it looks more like a grimace. Clearly she does mind, Ashe thinks. He better be a gentleman and leave the lovebirds alone.

"Oh, no, it's fine! I forgot, I uh, have something to do," Ashe says. "See you next week!"

He hurries out of the cafe before Sylvain can say anything, and it's not until he swipes his card into his dorm room that he realizes he forgot to order a coffee.

xx

Ashe wonders how he could spend a whole year in university never crossing paths with Sylvain but now seem to bump into him everywhere.

"Wow! It's like fate," Sylvain laughs.

Ashe laughs back, stiffly. "Crazy, right?" he says.

Sylvain throws an arm around Ashe's shoulder. "We didn't get to chat last time! Are you busy now?"

Ashe's brain tells him to lie again, but Sylvain's arm is heavy ( _Buff_ , that godforsaken voice supplies unhelpfully.) and Ashe doesn't want to try shaking it off. So instead he smiles and says, "No, but what about you? Where's"--he takes a moment to remember--"Bernie?"

"Oh, she's out with her boyfriend. Can't spend all her time with me, you know," Sylvain says, waving his hand.

Ashe's eyes look like they'll pop out. Boyfriend? He knows Sylvain is a playboy, but is he even chasing taken women now? Ashe shakes his head. No, no. They're probably just friends, then. That makes more sense. Probably.

Sylvain's mouth quirks as he watches Ashe's face go through a thousand expressions in two seconds. "Me and Bernie are just friends," Sylvain says. Great, was he a mind reader too now?

"Of course!" Ashe laughs like Sylvain was stating something unnecessary and not, in fact, saying something that perhaps Ashe finds very important, though the reason why is something he feels is dangerous to delve into. "Let's sit down," he says to distract himself, gently inching towards a nearby table.

"Sure thing," Sylvain says, settling into the seat across from him. Ashe breathes a sigh of relief when Sylvain removes his arm, but then Sylvain leans his arms over the table, and his sleeves are rolled up in that painfully dashing way that emphasizes the curves of his forearms and the stretch of fabric over his biceps. Ashe wonders if he does this on purpose.

"So," Ashe says.

"So," Sylvain repeats, and Ashe can't figure out for the life of him why Sylvain looks so damn pleased with himself. "How's class?"

Ashe thinks it would reflect poorly on himself to admit he has no idea what's going on in lecture, so he shrugs. "It's fine."

Sylvain raises his eyebrows. "Really? What are you learning right now?"

Ah, shit. Ashe looks away.

"I see," Sylvain nods seriously, before bursting out in a laugh. "You have two midterms, right? When's the next one?"

"Two weeks from now," Ashe groans, putting his face in his hands.

"Oh shit, then we only have one more meeting before your test?"

"Yeah…" Ashe fiddles with his fingers. "But next time will be two hours long, so it should be fine?" Saying it like a question was not reassuring at all.

Sylvain rests his chin in one hand, staring at Ashe. Ashe doesn't notice at first, but after a few seconds, he feels Sylvain's gaze and fixes his eyes on his lap. Why was Sylvain staring at him? Ashe sneaks a peek at him, and Sylvain is still staring. Was he zoning out? Did this asshole really just mentally check out in the middle of their conversation?

Ashe opens his mouth to say something, but Sylvain suddenly claps his hands, nearly startling Ashe out of his seat.

"How about we meet on Friday after all? An extra session. And we'll keep the two hours for next week, too. We're gonna get you that A, Ashe!" Sylvain looks triumphant.

Ashe is thrown for a loop. "What? What about Valentine's Day?" The hamster powering his brain is running on its wheel at top speeds.

"Hey, well, spending it with a cutie like you ain't so bad either, you know?" Sylvain winks. He looks at his watch. "Oh, gotta go. My next class is across campus. See you on Friday?" He leaves before Ashe can even reply.

xx

It's like Sylvain knows Ashe will think he hallucinated the whole thing, because he sends Ashe a text confirming the date and time for their newly scheduled session.

And so Ashe sits at the same table in the library that they sat at last week and waits, checking his phone every thirty seconds.

Ashe finishes tucking his phone away for the eighteenth time when he feels someone lean over the back of his chair.

"Want a kiss?"

Ashe smothers the scream that threatens to escape his throat as he whips around so fast he nearly snaps his neck.

Sylvain smiles down at him, as if waiting for an answer.

Ashe's mouth gapes like a fish. "Wha…"

Then Sylvain reaches over, and Ashe reflexively squeezes his eyes shut, but he just hears the sound of something clattering on the desk and feels Sylvain's body heat moving away. Ashe slowly opens his eyes.

"I've got a ton of them," Sylvain says, holding out a handful of Hershey's kisses.

"I…" Ashe turns back around to see a lone Hershey's kiss sitting in front of him. His ears go molten red.

Sylvain laughs. "What, did you--"

"No!" Ashe interjects. He doesn't know what Sylvain was going to say, but he knows it would be nothing good. "Let's get to work, shall we?" He makes a show of opening his textbook and flipping its pages with gusto.

"Right," Sylvain says with a chuckle. _If only he didn't open his eyes so soon_ , he thinks.

**Author's Note:**

> a disclaimer: i have not actually played fe3h, so all my knowledge comes from fandom osmosis and skimming wiki
> 
> thanks for reading!


End file.
